Upholstery button



June 18, 1968 L. N. BENNETT UPHOLSTERY BUTTON Filed Sept. 7, 1967 FIG.6

FIG.5

INVENTOR: LESLIE H. BENNETT BY ATT'Y United States Patent 3,388,436 UPHOLSTERY BUTTON Leslie N. Bennett, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Maxant Button & Supply Co., Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Filed Sept. 7, 1967, Ser. No. 679,583 2 Claims. (Cl. 24-94) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The essential concept of this .invention involves the conversion of a predetermined length of a strip of material into a button component, by a series of related deformations, to provide a head-element with an integrated pair of axially disposed prongs for use with a cap and a piece of fabric to form an upholstery button unit.

This invention relates to buttons such as are required for the tufting of upholstered furniture.

Certain types of upholstered furniture, wherein compressible padding is interposed between special-material coverings, have buttons which extend through the coverings and the padding to compress such into tufts of a predetermined pattern. The buttons, generally, are structured from metal to form head-elements with axially disposed prongs. The prongs, after penetrating the upholstery, are bent oppositely outward on the exposed face of the inner layer of covering material to secure the required patterned compression of the padding. In most instances the head elements, of the buttons, are overlaid with the same or suitable contrasting covering material. Heretofore such buttons involved the assembly of two or more parts incident to the capping of the button head with a disk of suitable covering.

The main objects of this invention are; to provide an improved form of button unit for use in tufting upholstered furniture; more specifically to provide an upholstery button component formed from a single piece of material; and to provide a one-piece button component of this kind of such simple design as to make its manufacture and marketing highly economical, its use exceedingly facile, and the appearance of the button unit very gratifying.

In the adaptation shown in the accompanying drawing;

FIG. 1 is a fragment of upholstery showing how the finished button unit is used to eifect the tufting of the up holstery;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a button component constructed in accordance with this invention;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged side elevation of the button component shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a top end view of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an exploded view of the button component, an auxiliary cap or shell member and covering fabric piece, which are subject to assembling to complete a covered button unit ready for use;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the finished button unit such as required for use with a particular design of upholstery covering;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of a strip of material from which is formed the button component shown in FIGS. 1 through 6;

FIG. 8 illustrates a possible first deformation of the strip of material to construct the button component;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a possible second deformation in converting the strip of FIG. 7 into the button component form of FIGS. 1 through 6;

FIG. 10 is a side elevation of the button component into which the form shown in FIG. 9 is converted; and

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a modified form of button component using a round piece of Wire.

A button component 11, for use with upholstery 12, em-

"ice

bodying the foregoing concept comprises a head-element 13, and a pair of prongs 14. Such a button component 11 of FIGS. 1-10 is structured from a flat strip 15 for assembly with a cap member 16 and a covering piece 17 to constitute the desired type of finished button unit 18.

A fragment of upholstery 12, as shown in FIG. 1, is drawn into tufted contour by a finished button unit 18 as illustrated in FIG. 6. The upholstery 12 conventionally comprises padding 19 interposed between layers 21 and 22 of covering material. The padding 19 and the covering materials 21 and 22 may be any of the products currently used for this purpose. Such upholstery 12 is overlaid on a series of springs 23 secured to a supporting frame 24.

The button component 11 herein shown is formed from a strip of metal 15 (FIG. 7) approximately .032 thick and .125 wide and of varying lengths depending upon the size of button required. The strip 15 would be placed in a machine equipped with suitably-structured dies whereby the strip would pass through a succession of deformations that result in the form shown in FIG. 10. The first of these deformations creates arcuate bends 25 to dispose the opposite and approximately one-third end portions 26 and 27 of the strip 15 at right angles to the median portion 28 of the strip, as indicated in FIG. 8. The second deformation effects bends 29 in the contiguous parts of the median portion 28 to oifset the opposite end portions 26 and 27 from the median portion 28 with the planes of the end portions 26 and 27 disposed transversely of the plane of the median portion 28, as shown in FIG. 9. Thereupon, that part of the median portion, between the bends 29 is converted into ring-shaped contour to form the head element 13 as shown in FIG. 10. It will be noted that in this figure the plane of this ring-shaped head element 13 is perpendicular to the plane of the axially-disposed prongs 14. Usually the form thusly shown in FIG. 10 then is passed through a pair of dies to effect a slight tapering of the head element so that the inner perimeter 31 is disposed radially inward of the outer perimeter 32, as shown in FIG. 3. Under certain circumstances such a taper helps to ensure the retention of the cap member 16 on the head element 13, with the perimeter of the covering piece 27 clamped between the inner edge of the cap member 16 and the tapered exterior face of the head element 13.

The modified button component, shown in FIG. 11, is formed from a piece of round wire and subject to the same succession of deformation as explained above with respect to the flat metal strip of FIG. 7.

Such clamping of the cap member 15 and the covering piece 17 on the head element 13 is effected in an assembly machine which results in the formation of the finished button unit 18 as shown in FIG. 6.

In use such a finished button unit 18 has the prongs 14 pressed through the upholstery 12 (FIG. 1) and drawn inwardly to effect the desired compression of the outer covering 21 over the padding 19. Thereupon the major parts of the pair of prongs 14 are bent oppositely outward-or inwardly-against the inner covering 22, as shown in FIG. 1.

Variations and modifications in the details of structure and arrangement of the parts may be resorted to within the spirit and coverage of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. The method of structuring an upholstery button from a single metal strip and having a ring-shaped headelement with a pair of prongs disposed substantially axially normal to the plane of the head-element, the method comprising first bending the strip of predetermined length to dispose opposite end portions transverse to the median portion with the junctions of the respective end portions adjacent the median portions arched outwardly from the medial portion and disposed at substantially right angles to the median portion with the width of the planes of the end portions disposed transverse to the width plane of the median portion, and subsequently bending the median portion into ring-shape and thereby dispose the prong axially 0f the head element.

2. A one-piece button-component for use with a cap and a covering piece to form an upholstery button unit, the component comprising a substantially flat metal strip the median portion of which is formed into a ring-shaped axially-tapered head-element with the respective adjacent opposite portions of the strip disposed radially inward substantially to the center of the ring-shaped head-element and with the remaining portions of the strip disposed normal to the plane of the ring-shaped head-element and in substantial abutting contact with each other.

D. A. GRIFFIN, Pri'maly Examiner. 

